Shari & Lamb Chop (DVD Review)
- Review Date: Oct 20, 2025
- Format: DVD
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Director
Lisa D’ApolitoRelease Date(s)
2023 (October 21, 2025)Studio(s)
White Horse Pictures (Kino Lorber)- Film/Program Grade: A
- Video Grade: B
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: D
Review
Shari Lewis easily fits the term “Renaissance woman.” She could write, sing, dance, do magic, and conduct orchestras. She was best known as a ventriloquist and host of a number of children’s programs spanning several decades. Working in a male-dominated industry, she revolutionized the field of and became an advocate for children’s education. The documentary Shari & Lamb Chop chronicles her multi-faceted career.
Lewis’ father, Abraham Hurwitz, was named New York City’s “Official Magician” by Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, who taught his daughter how to perform magic tricks. She also received instruction in acrobatics, baton twirling, juggling, ice skating, piano, and violin. Her goal was to be a dancer, but when she broke her leg, she turned to ventriloquism, taking lessons from veteran vaudevillian ventriloquist John Cooper. She gradually built an act, working up from a few minutes to a half hour.
Her big break came when she was the winner on Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts. From that appearance, she received a number of live bookings and NBC offered her her own show, Facts N’Fun, a variety program in which she engaged home and studio audiences with games, hobbies, crafts, songs, and stories. A number of other TV shows followed, including Shariland, debuting in 1956, on which puppets Charlie Horse and Hush Puppy were introduced. Lamb Chop, introduced on an episode of Captain Kangaroo earlier that year, joined the cast. Lewis was so popular in the early 1960s that numerous products were merchandised using her name and image.
When the networks backed away from live children’s programming in favor of less costly cartoons, Lewis attempted to reinvent herself as a performer, appearing on TV variety programs such as The Ed Sullivan Show and Hollywood Palace revealing her talents as an accomplished singer and dancer. In one appearance, she danced with a full-sized puppet of Fred Astaire. Las Vegas appearances followed, with Lewis gearing her act to adults for the first time. But there was a slump in her career during which Lewis was reduced to appearing on telethons and at state fairs.
A breast cancer scare hardly sidetracked her as she dutifully underwent radiation and took her medications and moved on. Invited to do a show with the Dallas Symphony, Lewis found a new venue and did several symphony shows. She’s referred to by one of her associates as “the queen of overachievers.” She performed her puppet act in Japan in Japanese, a language she had to learn for the gig.
She once again got her own TV show when PBS hired her in 1992 for a children’s show that became Lamb Chop’s Play-Along. The show lasted three years but was in reruns through 1998.
Lewis was married twice and gave birth to a daughter, Mallory, from second husband Jeremy Tarcher. Sadly, Lewis passed away in 1998 from terminal cancer. Mallory officially changed her name to Lewis and continues to perform with Lamb Chop.
Director Lisa D’Apolito has created a loving tribute to Shari Lewis, incorporating interviews from Lewis’ daughter and industry associates, archival footage from Lewis’ early TV shows, guest appearances on variety shows, news footage, and still photos. There are also interviews with young ventriloquists inspired by Lewis. The underlying theme is that Lewis made it as a woman in a tough industry and always looked forward. She was delighted to once again head a children’s show for PBS.
There are several sequences of Lewis working with her puppet family. In terms of her talent as a ventriloquist, a few examples truly astonish, such as Lewis singing a rapid patter song along with Lamb Chop and Charlie Horse, changing voices with breakneck speed, turning toward each puppet as they sang their part, and never moving her lips in the process. Lewis established many of the concepts of a live children’s show, such as talking directly to the audience and using puppet characters, that were incorporated into the later children’s show, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.
Shari & Lamb Chop was shot digitally by director of photography Anne Etheridge, but there’s considerable archival footage including some dating back to the 1950s, so quality varies. Archival footage from Lewis’ various TV shows and variety show appearances is in both in black & white and color. Some grainy home movie footage is also included. Excepts from one interview are interspersed throughout the documentary, as Lewis speaks about different aspects of her life and career. The puppet sequences, filmed very close to Lewis and the puppets, reveal how expert a ventriloquist she was.
There are three soundtrack options: English 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital, and English Audio Description for the visually impaired. English SDH subtitles are an available option. Lewis’ vocal talents provide distinctive voices to her various puppets.
The only bonus material on the DVD release from Kino Lorber is the following:
- Theatrical Trailer (2:38)
Shari & Lamb Chop tells the story of a TV pioneer whose talents entertained children for decades. Multi-talented and never content to rest on her laurels, she experienced career highs and unsettling lows, yet never gave up trying to reinvent herself. The film is nostalgic in that it deals with a bygone era in which live, talented performers engaged their young audiences through imagination and humor.
- Dennis Seuling